Haley, accuser spar over polygraph

South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley is refusing to take a polygraph test that a lobbyist says would prove they had a one-night stand.

After watching blogger Will Folks announce that he and Haley had an affair — a charge the Republican candidate denies — South Carolina lobbyist Larry Marchant announced last week that he too had a sexual encounter with Haley while she was married.

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Neither Folks nor Marchant has been able to produce any evidence of a sexual relationship.

But on Friday, Marchant proposed that he take a polygraph to prove that he and Haley shared a hotel room during a 2008 trip to Salt Lake City for a conference on school choice.

The only condition, the lobbyist said, is that Haley would have to take the test too.

Asked about Marchant’s proposal by a local Fox affiliate on Sunday, Haley said there was no way she’d take a polygraph in the closing hours before Tuesday’s primary.

“What are you going to do, start strapping polygraph tests to everybody making an allegation?” Haley told a reporter for WACH in Columbia. “I think we need to be practical here.”

The response from Marchant: “I am not surprised that she is not going to take [a polygraph]. I have been speaking the truth from the beginning, and I am looking forward to having this back up my statement.” Marchant, who until last week was employed by Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer’s campaign against Haley, said he was still “more than happy to take a polygraph test.”

Haley has blamed Bauer for pushing the stories about her. Baeur has said it’s not so — and taken a polygraph test of his own to prove it. He released the results of that test Monday, and he said the test shows that he did not have a hand in the anti-Haley stories.

“I’m not willing to have that kind of false accusation go unchallenged,” Bauer said during a news conference announcing the results. “She made a false accusation about me, and I wanted to prove that I was telling the truth.”

Haley spokesman Tim Pearson scoffed at Bauer's announcement.

"Nikki is focused on leading South Carolina for the next four years," Pearson said. "We'll let Andre focus on leading the three-ring media circus. "